Found A Place To Rest My Head
by LetGoLetOpenDoorsOfPurgatory
Summary: Charlie Bradbury has found a safe haven in the arms of Sam and Dean Winchester. Can she continue to find that safe haven with them or will the trials and challenges of the hunting life prove to be a bit too much for our red-headed queen?


**Prologue: I Found A Place To Rest My Head**

Charlie had never expected to end up here. In fact, she had thought she would still be as far away from the Winchester brothers as possible and even then it wouldn't have been enough. She remembered vaguely how she had warned the Winchesters to never contact her again. Like, _ever._ Sam had happily obliged and shook her hand as if to seal the deal and that had been enough for Charlie. Sam had seemed like a man of his word. There had been a statement of "_Peace out, bitches_!" and the flashing of the Vulcan Salute from Charlie before both of the men had seen her off onto a Greyhound bus to God knows where. Hell, Charlie even forgot where she had gone. She just knew she was taking a bus that could take her anywhere in the nation and she could start anew again. Those brothers, as cool as they were, were out of her life and she was safe again. Though she had her doubts. She had been right to have those doubts because it didn't seem too long after that they were on her doorstep again. Charlie had found a safe haven in the arms of those of the LARPing community known as Moondoor. Yet, somehow, it was as if the odds were against her. Sam and Dean arrived at the LARPing fair that was stationed in Michigan not too long after she had been there and before she knew it she was being questioned by them.

And then she had teamed up with Dean and Sam.

At least, that was then. Now? She had become just as vested into things as the brothers were. Though she had a choice. That was the thing though – she had a choice to run. Charlie could have run away from it all and avoided the dangers and risks that came with the job title of a hunter but she hadn't. She was a _hero._ People might not have known that and she and the brothers might have been the only ones aware of it but it was the concept that counted here. She was saving lives that mattered. Lives that needed her help because they didn't know about what went bump in the night. There was something ultimately empowering about that. Especially if she could do something more than just beyond hacking to help others.

And that had only led up to her finding them in Lebanon, Kansas by emailing them the details of a hunt she had found for them. This time she had come to the Winchesters. Willingly and happily. She had found out so much about them in such a short amount of time due to the books that had been written about them that she had began to understood them on a better level than she had before. A level that she could relate to so closely that she had hardly wanted to admit to it. These men, they weren't so different from her. Of course they had lived different lives from her but they had faced similar challenges she had and somehow, just somehow, Charlie took comfort in this fact. Charlie, quite frankly, had found a place to rest her head. And she loved every moment of it. She was in the care of two men she loved, and they loved her. And well, wasn't that the whole point?

After her last hunt with the boys Charlie had spent her time on the down-low. As much as she was happy to have helped out the brothers it had been too much of a close call for her. She wasn't scared. She was just shaken. Terribly so. She might've poked around in some stuff that had looked like cases but she spent most of her time brushing up on lore and studying it. If anything she wanted to be prepared for anything and everything next time she met up with Sam and Dean and Charlie certainly was not one to not know her bases. Charlie spent a few weeks away from her newly found friends – her brothers – only for one night to find herself staring at the sky. A tragically beautiful display of meteors falling from the sky decorated the night and the red-head was left to question what had the Winchesters broken. This was by no means a normal shower. This wasn't the things the weatherman predicted on the T.V. Early mornings or evenings. This was the kind of stuff that belonged to Sam and Dean and Charlie was well aware of it. Her mind went to Sam and the trials and there had been a sinking feeling of panic. As the sky continued to fall Charlie locked herself away in her motel and protected herself the best she could with symbols that she had studied to ward off any angels and demons.

Days passed and Charlie was left to worry. She was left to her thoughts and all she could think about was how Sam was probably dead and if he was dead then Dean was just as good as dead too. Those thoughts scared her. That'd be her luck, though. Just as soon as she had found people she related with and loved the heck out of she'd lose them – that just had to be the case. Day in and day out Charlie's stomach churned and she found herself growing more and more exhausted. She couldn't go without a word from the brothers. If she did she could find herself in something deep. And then there was the simple fact that...she wasn't sure she wanted to know. She wasn't sure she wanted to see the sight of the dead brothers because she had already lost her mother. She didn't want _another_ nightmare.

Then the answers to her prayers came. Things fell back into place and it felt as if a large weight had been lifted off of her shoulders – freeing her from the pressing feeling of doom that had kept her held back for the past week.

"Hello?"

"_Charlie. It's me, Dean. I need your help._"


End file.
